This invention relates generally to print and print-publishing prepress, and more particularly to such prepress that is computerized.
The publishing process typically requires several steps to successfully complete a printed publication. Such steps include planning and organizing, design and content development, and prepress tasks where electronic files are prepared to be reproduced with ink on paper. Broadly speaking, prepress involves the preparation of all the electronic files that will be utilized to create a publication printed with paper and ink. For a professional publication, this usually involves utilizing an authoring program to create the electronic version of the publication itself, and then using another program (which may be a component of the authoring program), to translate this electronic version into a format from which paper and ink copies of the publication can be printed.
Portions if not all of the prepress process is difficult for non-professionals to accomplish, however. While tools such as Adobe PageMaker and Quark Express enable professionals to more easily create professional-looking documents, most non-professionals find these computer programs overly complex and difficult to use. That is, although the computers sitting on the desks of such non-professionals are sufficiently powerful to handle such tasks, the users themselves may not be sufficiently knowledgeable to perform them. Furthermore, even for experienced professionals, the prepress process is fraught with uncertainty; for example, the professional must know the type of paper and ink output that is desired a priori before translating an electronic version of a document into a format from which paper and ink copies can be printed. That is, even for experienced professionals, the prepress process is not tightly integrated enough to attain fast, easy and cost-effective print publishing.
The above-identified shortcomings as well as other shortcomings and problems are addressed by the present invention, which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification. In one embodiment, a computerized prepress system includes four components: a server, a first client, a second client, and a printer. The server has stored thereon an authoring program to create a document template, and a translation program to translate a document based on the document template to a suitable prepress format. The first client downloads the authoring program from the server to create the document template, and then uploads the document to the server. The second client creates the document based on the document template, which is uploaded to the server for translation to the suitable prepress format. The printer receives the document as translated to the suitable prepress format from the server, such that the printer may then print copies of the document.
More specifically, in one particular embodiment of the invention, the authoring program is written in the programming language Java, and the client, server and printer are each connected to an intranet the Internet. Thus, an administrative user at the client needs only to run a web browser program, such as Netscape Navigator, to access the server and download and run the authoring program. This user creates a document template. Another user then can use a web browser program to create a document based on the template. The server may then as required translate the document into a suitable prepress formatxe2x80x94such as PostScriptxe2x80x94and send it to the printer (e.g., as a MIME-compliant electronic mail) for printing.
In different embodiments of the invention, computerized methods, computerized systems, computers, and computer-readable media of varying scope are described. Still other and further embodiments, aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the drawings and by reading the following detailed description.